Project Management
Certification & Training

By Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

Summary: A good WBS is not a detailed "To do" list. Using that approach lead to less control, not more, and a schedule that is too detailed to track closely.

High-flying PM Aces & TV Weather People

The whole project office concept gets a lot of bad-mouthing, particularly from the high flying aces in the project management squadron. Besides multi-hyphenated curse words, we hear various complaints:

• Some PMs complain of mindless paper shufflers who achieve nothing but taking up everybody else's time.
• Other PMs grouse about project office know-it-alls who tell everyone else how to run projects but never have to climb in the cockpit themselves.
• Top executives point stern fingers at the project office after a project crashes and burns. Between crashes, these execs usually refuse to look at any of the PO 's reports.

Who is right and who is wrong? Is it best to just avoid a transfer to the project office?

Well, many of the above-mentioned problems occur when organizations have the wrong type of project office for their stage of project management development. There are three basic types of project offices. They all gaze up at the heavens and watch what's going on, but they perceive things from three different perspectives:  the Weather Station, the Control Tower and the Squadron Commander.

The Weather Station

Just like your friendly TV weather person, this project office reports on what is going on overhead, but does not try to influence it. This PO bothers none of the pilot/PMs flying their project craft. These weather people accumulate data about conditions and note who is flying in what direction, but never try to fix anything. They just pass on information to anyone who is interested. People in weather stations draw a lot of smile-faces on their hand-written notes. This cheeriness gets them very little cooperation from the swaggering PMs piloting their high-flying project craft, each according to his or her own plan.

The Control Tower

Here the folks in the project office give direction to project managers. Each PM flies his or her own craft but follows instructions from the control tower, particularly during take-offs and landings. Just like air-traffic controllers, these control tower people are a nervous lot. They get blamed for all the crashes even after the PM/pilot has been burned to a cinder. The PM pilots pay close attention to the control tower because they get grounded if they don't follow the rules.

The Squadron Commander (SC)

In this project office, the SC tells all the PM/pilots when to enter their cockpits and when to take-off. Once in the air, all the PMs fly in strict formation under the SC's close direction. Some pilots can be aces and others get shot down, but the SC is evaluated for the overall performance of the Squadron. The SC reports on the effectiveness of each pilot and grounds the nincompoops. The SC allocates fuel and ammo to the pilots, often based on a priority scheme too complicated for any mere mortal to comprehend.

Which is the Best?

So what's the best kind of project office? The answer depends on the state of project management in the organization. The odd thing about project management today is that we see Weather Stations in organizations that should have Squadron Commanders and Control Towers where we should have one of the other forms.

What kind of organization needs a Weather Station? Unfortunately, we often see them in organizations where project management is relatively new. These organizations are usually struggling with the problem of integrating cross-functional projects into the management hierarchy. As a result, top management limits the role of the project office to avoid further bruising the toes, and the fragile egos, of already sensitive line managers. Yet, when project management is relatively new to the organization, it needs more centralized control and enforcement to instill a disciplined approach.

We see Squadron Commanders more and more frequently, sometimes as employees but usually as outside consultants. Organizations who use squadron commanders usually have two problems. First, projects have become very dense in the organization. All the best line managers and staff experts have multiple project assignments in addition to their "real jobs" and resource allocation and prioritization are out of control. Second, management is:

So the organization attempts to resolve the mess of failed projects and wasted millions by bringing in Squadron Commanders to straighten out the mess. Sometimes this works but it takes a very skilled SC to fix the mess and support the continued development of the organization's project managers. Usually, the PMs become so dependent on the SC that the consultant can never leave (a situation about which the consultants shed big tears but still grudgingly take the money). When the consultants' bill finally exceeds the GNP of a small South American country and the SCs get tossed out, the organization is often worse off than before.

We see effective Control Towers only rarely. They belong only in organizations that have solved the authority problems of cross-functional projects and developed a cadre of skilled project managers who apply a consistent protocol for planning, budgeting and tracking their projects. The Control Tower allows line managers and PMs sufficient "elbow room" for creativity while still allocating resources properly and coordinating the organization's airspace.

So what's the moral of this high-flying air show?

The operating process of the project office must evolve with project management in organizations. We may need the discipline of the SC in the beginning if we cannot train and guide our project managers. But we must loosen the strictures on project managers as they and the discipline of project management mature in the organization. The SC thus evolves into a Control Tower. The Weather Station is appropriate only when project management is so embedded in the organization that cross-functional projects constitute the organization's structure rather than being just an appendage to it.